UK Electricity Grid & Carbon Intensity
How Great Britain is powered right now — the live generation mix, how clean the electricity is (carbon intensity), the greenest time to run heavy appliances in the next day, and how it varies by region. From the Carbon Intensity API, refreshed every half hour.
- Live generation mix
- Carbon intensity + forecast
- By region
Right now
Great Britain · Sun 18 Oct, 21:30 UK timeGeneration mix
share of GB electricity being generated nowCarbon intensity — next 48 hours
forecast gCO₂/kWh · UK timeBy region
forecast carbon intensity · greenest firstHow to read this
Carbon intensity is how much CO₂ is produced per unit of electricity (grams per kWh). It falls when wind, solar, nuclear and hydro supply more of the grid, and rises when gas has to fill the gap. Using heavy appliances when intensity is low cuts both emissions and (on a time-of-use tariff) often cost.
The generation mix and intensity are for Great Britain (Northern Ireland is on a separate grid). Regional figures are the Carbon Intensity API's 14 distribution regions. Forecasts are the operator's own and can change.
Source & updates
Data from the Carbon Intensity API by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) with the University of Oxford, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This page refreshes about every half hour.
Related: the Power cost calculator, UPS runtime and the Global Situation Monitor.